Thursday, August 23, 2012

When Venus the Chimera cat's picture began making the rounds on the internet last week, many people questioned the authenticity of the photo depicting the cat who seemingly had two faces. Fortunately, in an age where Photoshop is the norm, sometimes what you see really is what you get, and Venus, the cat with half a black face with a green eye and half an orange face with a blue eye, is a real life Harvey Dent -- albeit a whole lot cuter!

While there is some debate as to whether she is a chimera or a mosaic cat (blah blah science!), there is no question that the three-year-old is a gentle and loving kitty, whose owner says loves being babied. Named after the Greek goddess of beauty and love, Venus was adopted from a dairy farm in North Carolina in 2009 after her adoptive family saw photos of her online. Her instantly smitten mama was initially drawn to the kitten because she looked like a combination of her two cats (an orange tabby and black tux), but maintains, "She is such a wonderful cat and I'd be just as in love with her even if she wasn't so pretty."

After coming to the realization that her unique cat had gone viral, Venus's owner started a Facebook page dedicated the famous feline, which has already swelled to over 13,000 admirers since August 14.

Pretty amazing on first glance, but if you go to the Facebook page, the cat there and one here don't look at all the same. I think what's happened is that there might have been some photoshop involved in cleaning up the center line of the cat's face. That's kind of dishonest. Cute cat, though.